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Tuesday, 9 November 2010

I thought I'd never find pretzels here in UK and boy was I glad when Penn State, the leading supplier of pretzels here in the UK, contacted me to review their Christmas snack Box.

A big red box looking all Christmassy landed at my door step and in the box was the Original Sea Salted Pretzels, the Sour Cream & Chive flavour, Spicy Jalfrezi and an array of exciting dips to go with it. I devoured each and every one of it with great enthusiasm and what went through my mind immediately was it would be great to snack on these while watching a movie or just chilling out at home.

Now the exciting bit is that these Pretzels are baked and not fried which makes you a little less guilty gobbling them up and they are lower in fat as well...good eh? Absolutely!

The original Sea Salted Pretzels were basic as far as taste was concerned with the initial salty flavour melting off and giving way to a crunchy pretzel. But what hit the spot for me was this dipped in the 'Mistletoe & Thyme' dip which was slightly sweet and caramelised with a hint of thyme. The combination was so good I found it hard to stop with just one.

I also tried the 'Cinnamon Wonderland' with the salty pretzels and they were nice too. The strong chocolate and cinnamon flavours combined well with the salty pretzels, but its not a combination everyone would like I suppose.

My favourite pretzel however was the Sour Cream and Chive- which as a flavour on its own is brilliant. Imagine pretzels with the same awesomeness included? Yes, it was mind blowing and I loved it so much that i went back to Sainsbury's to pick up a few more packets. I liked them on their own but I'm sure it would have been great with the Jingle Bell Chilli (I know, I love the name too), a honey and chilli mix.

The Jalfrezi flavour somehow didn't hit the spot for me. It was just about OK I would say. Although, what I did with it is, crumble it and layer it on top of a macaroni bake for that crispiness, and the Indian flavours it emitted went well with the bake.

The 'Cinnamon Wonderland' dip was really hard and it took me a lil over a minute to warm it up in the microwave and even then it wasn't as gooey as i liked it to be. I am thinking of using the leftover dip to drizzle on some cookies.

My favourite dip was the 'Mistletoe & Thyme' and I also served it with some chicken kebabs I'd made. It was a nice combination..the spiciness of the chicken with the chutney-like dip was a hit among my guests.

The Penn State pretzels are available in most of the leading grocery stores in England, but do check where all they are available on their website. I shall definitely be picking them up more often at the store now!

Snack style pretzels are pretty widely available here although personally I prefer the big doughy ones from Pret or there's a place at Bluewater that does them too. Not heard of PennState, I will look out for them.